Many systems, such as transit systems, in which contactless smart cards or similar media are used, conduct transactions by reading from and/or writing to the contactless smart cards. To do so, a specialized card reader is often needed; the card reader being configured to communicate with the contactless smart card using established smart card communication standards. Transit and other systems are, however, limited in their ability to deploy these card readers, which can impede a user's ability to conduct transactions where a card reader is not available.